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January 4, 2016

The Future You

Otherworldly Patron

***We worked with the amazing Neal M to write this subclass. I only wish I could have thought of this awesome idea.***

The Future You

Your patron is you in a decades-distant future. Perhaps your future self found an artifact of great power connecting the him to the past, which he must now lead you to discover, or perhaps he was taught the mystic arts by his future self long ago, and you will have to continue this cycle by teaching yourself someday. Your future self has forgotten the fine details of some things, and outright refuses to tell you about things you 'can't know yet,' but nonetheless offers compelling insight and guidance. You're not quite sure what he is planning for your future (and for his past), but one is certain - he needs you alive.Future You Quirks
Strange effects linger after communicating with your future self. You gain one of the following traits:

d6 Quirk
1 You often speak in the wrong tense.
2 You sometimes refer to a person you just met by name, before they've introduced themselves.
3 You often refer to yourself in the plural.
4 In certain lighting, you look much older than you are.
5 Seeing certain people alive can instantly reduce you to tears.
6 Your future fashion sense clashes completely with that of today.

It Happened Like This
Starting at 1st level, your discussions of the future with yourself have given you some periphery knowledge about how events played out. When you take a short or long rest, your DM rolls a d20 in secret and records the number rolled. Your DM can disclose the value, keep it a secret, or lie about its value. You can replace any ability check you make with this roll. You must choose to do so before the roll and can only use this recorded value once.

I Could Do With Fewer Scars
At 6th level, your future self often warns you of particular attacks to watch out for. When you are targeted by an attack you can use your reaction to gain a +10 bonus to AC against that attack. After using this ability, you must take a short or long rest before doing so again.

Expect an Ambush
At 10th level, your future self always warns you about potential ambushes. As a result, you cannot be surprised while you are conscious and have advantage on initiative rolls.

Grandfather Paradox
At 14th level, your knowledge of the future allows you to exploit some of the rules of spacetime. As an action, you can cause that creature to make an Intelligence saving throw. On a failed save, you goad the creature into causing a paradox. For 1d6 rounds the creature is incapacitated, locked between two opposing states while the paradox sorts itself out. The creature is unaffected on a successful save. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.

New Pact BoonPact of the Hourglass
You age at half the normal rate, becoming 1 day older for each two days that pass, and you can accurately recall anything you have ever seen or heard. Additionally, you can sometimes recall events that have not yet occurred. You can gain advantage on an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw. After doing so, you can't use this ability again until you complete a long rest.

New InvocationsClairvoyant ConfusionPrerequisite: Pact of the Hourglass feature
Your patron gives you the ability to show false futures to your foes. As a bonus action, you can cause each creature you choose within 15 feet to make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, a creature perceives a possible future in which you run past them, and attempts Opportunity Attacks on the air, expending its reaction. After using this ability, you cannot do so again until you take a short or long rest.

Him? I Remember Him...Prerequisite: Pact of the Hourglass feature
You can gain advantage on an Intimidation (Charisma) or Persuasion (Charisma) check. You may not do so again until you take a long rest.

29 comments:

The patron option isn't really very good, like, overall it's kinda weak in comparison to the other warlock patrons, and it's final thing isn't really very good just because it's incapacitated for d6 turns.The pact boon seems okay for all I know, being able to remember everything, 2x age until death, and advantage on on thing once per day is pretty nice. It's invocations aren't very good though, a wisdom save for getting rid of a reaction isn't really good as a short rest power, and the advantage on one charisma check per long rest isn't really as good as most other invocations.Overall I think it just needs some buffs or something because it's not really powerful enough.

Agreed. This subclass needs less 1/rest abilities. Undying, GOO and Fiend patrons both have something unlimited on uses per day, for example. (as for Archfey... well, I'm clueless there, but you get the idea)

I know it's hard to make something fitting for this theme that isn't limited on uses, but if you figure something out, it'd be great. My personal thought (although take this just as ribbon addition to first level class feature) would be expertise in History checks to "remember" your own future, or something similar.

You might be right that it could use another unlimited use ability; I'm thinking at level 1, since that ability is very weak. I could really use suggestions on this one.

Here's a few thoughts on how I might make the Invocations more powerful: Clairvoyant Confusion becomes Cha/restHim? I Remember Him becomes unlimited use (only once per 24 hours per creature). (Maybe this could use all new mechanics too; I'm open to suggestion here.)

An idea my friend had while talking to him was this"Maybe it could have a portent like effect, where you roll the die ahead of time before deciding if you really wanna do that."An example would be:Garry the Warlock decides to hit the monkey with the sword, so he rolls the die. It's a one.Garry, instead of taking that future, decides to dodge so the monkey can't hit him, or use the help action on another person.

Yeah, I figured it would come out a little weak, I just kept wanting to focus on the flavor of things as that was the most important part of it to me. If anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them - something as cool as Awakened Mind or Thought Shield maybe, from the Great Old One patron in the PHB. Seems like for each of the three PHB archetypes, each Warlock at level 10 gets a feature that isn't limited by rests.

Again, if someone has something that keeps the flavor of it and feels good mechanically/isn't too weak, feel free to suggest it!

I was afraid to give more than one roll on the original It Happened Like This because of Perception rolls, but Observant can already make your Perception rolls pretty ridiculous so maybe Charisma mod per day wouldn't have been so bad. I probably overestimated the power.

Either way, I think the new one is hilarious. Love it!

Actually, maybe I Could Do With Fewer Scars could have more than one use per rest too. It looks better than Shield, and 10 AC pretty much means you won't get hit if you have ~15 base AC, but Shield lasts the entire round, this is just for that attack. Maybe it'd work out.

I'm probably going to leave I Could Do With Fewer Scars alone, on the basis that '1/short rest avoid danger' is the 6th level Warlock standard. I could buff its power, but the times/rest thing should probably stay static.

That is a SUPER cool idea. When I came up with the Patron I was excited to hear about the roleplaying and stories to come out of it, since this is such a weird, nonsensical, paradoxical thing, and the mystery of your future "self" would be such a fun part of it. Warlocks in general with their Patrons have a lot of RP value, I feel.

I love the idea. I was planning on playing a Warlock of the Great Old One (The Time & Space Corporation - which is totally evil, but people still work there) being sent back in time to a fantasy world, but this new patron might actually work better.

This is a an awesome idea! It reminds me of Captain Janeway vs. Admiral Janeway in Endgame. What if you and Future You have conflicting ideals/thoughts/goals? Would you listen to yourself? Would Future You know how to manipulate you? Good stuff!

So I realize that you guys probably consider this one closed, but the 14th level feature does not read quite right.

"As an action, you can cause that creature to make an Intelligence saving throw."

You never told us what creature we are using this feature on, also you can't really trap a creature in a paradox unless it is a time traveler because none of the actions it is taking currently are paradoxical since none of it has happened yet. The future you would just experience a shift in events. Just something to think about. Sorry if I am beating a dead horse here, I just thought it might be important.

This post is so old, but had an Idea: "Spoilers" These are points you can spend to activate special abilities like a Battle Master's Superiority Die. (this would take the place of "I Could Do With Fewer Scars" at Lv 6) Spoilers can be used to gain +10 to AC until end of turn, or +10 to Attack/ Spell Attack rolls, or Advantage on a Saving Throw/ Ability Check. Start with 1-3 Spoilers at first. (either 3rd or 6th Level) Gain 2 more as you level up.

I have to question why the 1st level feature is kept secret from the player. If your future self told you something, you know what it is. And having the number be secret makes it no more useful than a random roll.